§ Mr. SteenTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the annual income of the Gas Engineering Meters and Quality Laboratory arising from(a) fees, (b) charges and (c) fines; what was total number of staff employed (i) part time and (ii) full time; and what contribution his Department made towards the annual running costs in the past three years. [3255]
828W
§ Mr. EggarI assume that this question refers to the work of the gas measurement branch of the oil and gas division of my Department. The income from fees and charges for Gas Act 1986 work in the three financial years, 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1995 is as follows:
Financial year Fees £ Charges £ 1992–93 2,292,549 1,001,715 1993–94 1,718,997 912,304 1994–95 1,518,188 967,804 There was no income from fines. Any fines would be paid into the magistrates court in respect of any criminal proceedings.
The number of staff in post in April of the relevant years carrying out Gas Act work is also as follows:
Staff in post Part time Full time 1992 4 62 1993 3 61 1994 2 58 1995 4 46 Apart from total expenditure over the three years of about £6,000 for Gas Act statutory work for which there was no power to make a charge, all of the gas measurement branch's annual running costs were recovered by relevant fees and charges.